Maldives Economic Review

Friday, June 26, 2009

Ahmed Mohamed is a Maldivian born in September 1970. He completed his primary and secondary education in the Maldives. Ahmed completed his first degree, BSc Engineering Science, with First Class Honours in 1994, and a postgraduate degree, MSc Economics in Public Policy in 2001, both at the University of Hull, England. Ahmed is married, and has two sons.

Ahmed started his professional career with the Government of Maldives in October 1989 as a Project Officer (trainee) at the then Ministry of Planning, and since then has held several key positions at that Ministry. He headed the Resource Management Section as a Project Analyst, the Regional Development Planning Section as Assistant Director, Regional Development, the National Planning and Strategic Research Section as Director, Development Planning, and the National Planning Division as Executive Director. At these various key positions his main responsibilities included formulation, implementation and monitoring of the National Development Plans of the Maldives; appraising of projects submitted for domestic and foreign funding; formulation and monitoring of the Annual Public Sector Investment Programmes; undertaking programmes to create public awareness on National Development Goals, Millennium Development Goals, SAARC Development Goals, and on population and development; and undertaking Vulnerability and Poverty Assessments of the Maldives.

As a key official of the Ministry of Planning, Ahmed has a long history of membership in several national councils, advisory boards and committees. He also has had the opportunity to participate in several international, national and sectoral conferences, seminars, workshops and meetings focussed on national development planning and implementation. He has travelled extensively both internationally and within the Maldives, and has visited almost all inhabited islands in the country.

During Ahmed’s tenure with the Government of Maldives, from October 1989 to December 2008, his contributions was not limited to the realm of national development policy planning but also contributed to the advancement of corporate management and governance. In this regard, Ahmed has served as member of the Board of Directors of many state-owned enterprises, including the State Trading Organisation PLC, Bank of Maldives PLC, Maldives National Oil Company Pvt Ltd, Allied Insurance Company of the Maldives Pvt Ltd, Fuel Supply Maldives Pvt Ltd, Hulhumale Development Corporation, Island Aviation Services Limited, and Maldives Ports Authority.

In addition, to being a member of the Board of Directors of the above state-owned enterprises, Ahmed also served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of State Trading Organisation PLC (STO) for over three years from 2005, and also held the position of the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of STO. The STO is the largest trading company in the Maldives with an annual turnover of over US$500 million.

Ahmed’s most notable contribution to corporate governance was the introduction of Corporate Governance Policies and Guidelines (CGPG) for the State Trading Organisation PLC in January 2006, which outlined the fundamental basis for controlling, directing and managing the company’s affairs. This was a significant achievement as the CGPC of STO was introduced over a year before the introduction of the Corporate Governance Code by the Capital Market Development Authority (CMDA) of the Maldives.

At present Ahmed is a freelance consultant, who also has a keen interest in raising public awareness on national development policies and strategies, and corporate governance.